Tech 2.0 for Thursday, February 16, 2012
If you bought a TV, monitor, or notebook computer that had a certain LCD screen you might be impacted by settlements totaling over a-half billion dollars. Settlements have been reached in several cases involving the price of thin film transistor liquid crystal display flat panels, or TFT-LCDs. The lawsuits claim the defendants conspired to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize prices of the flat panels resulting in overcharges to consumers. The companies deny the allegations. And a court hasn't decided who's right. The settlements would pay over $538 million to eight states, and consumers in 24 states and Washington, D.C. There'll be a hearing in May on whether the settlements will be approved.
Angry Birds has joined Facebook. The popular avian menace game is now on the social network around the world. An official with Rovio Asia says the new version of the game was launched in Jakarta because it's the "world's most Facebook-connected city." He says it's hoped the game would reach more than 800 million users worldwide. More than 17 percent of Indonesia's 240 million people have Facebook accounts -- more than 17 million are in Jakarta and surrounding areas.
Movie fans can easily see where this year's Oscar-nominated films are available to watch online and offline, in theaters, and on DVD, Blu-ray, Netflix, and iTunes and other services. There's an online helper specially designed for the 84th Academy Awards season and for film critic Roger Ebert's site. Visitors can also use the "Watch It" Oscars application to add the movies to their movie queues and be alerted when the films become available on new services.
